Dreamwork

“Your dreams are waiting for you to notice them, remember them, give them attention, hear them, move with them, and weave their insights into your life’s journey.”

“Hello, I’m Christopher Sowton!”

About me

I am passionate about helping people cultivate a relationship with their dreams. If you are thinking of taking your dream life more seriously then we have that in common! You will be amazed at the conversation that begins to take place between your dreams and your waking life.

In my 30 + years of practicing healthcare as a Naturopath in downtown Toronto, dreams have always held an important place in helping people heal. I first awakened to the healing potential of connecting to my dream life when I watched the most amazing film called, “The Way of the Dream,” which features the remarkable dream interpretation skills of Marie Louise Von Franz.

Soon after I watched that film I had an amazing dream that I called ”Three Wolves in the Water” which confirmed my calling as a dreamworker and dream educator. Since then, I have never doubted that dreams provide us with critically important information.

At that time I was a student intern at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and my fellow students were bringing me their dreams and the dreams of their clients; I would help them work with the dreams and get insights and connections. I became ‘the dream guy.’

In the late 1980s, Dr. Jim McNamara of Toronto was an important teacher for me, particularly in the areas of gestalt therapy and primal therapy. Also around this time I encountered the work of Dr. Graham Farrant, an Australian primal therapist who focused particularly on the earliest experiences of human life: sperm, egg, conception, implantation, gestation, birth and infancy. Through this work I came to understand that many people have significant ‘incarnation’ (coming into the body) issues which continue to influence their lives and perceptions.

I am also a member of the IASD (International Association for the Study of Dreams). And a founding member of its Toronto branch – Toronto Dreamers.

Yes! There is a huge local and global community of people who take dreams seriously. Feel free to check them out—they have lots of dream-related events that might interest you!

If you want to check out some of the public talks I have done click here.

What do I do?

You know how people have a dream that they know is trying to tell them something, but they have no idea what? I help people tune in and understand their dream messages. My style of dreamwork is all about allowing you to re-enter your dream and get a sense of what wants to happen.

For example, here’s a case from my practice. Identifying information has been changed to protect confidentiality.

Karen is a 45 year woman who was having trouble with a controlling co-worker. She had the following dream she called Rage and the Neglected Fish:

I had a really good connection to one of the Managers at work and then suddenly I was yelling in a rage at Andrew my co-worker for dropping the ball three times on a project we were both working on. I was yelling really loud in a rage with my eyes bulging out. Then I saw that I had left 3 fish aquariums there in the office with goldfish living in them. One was being fed and the other two I was unsure what to do with. There was no one there to take care of the fish! I didn’t know what to do!

In our dreamwork session, Karen re-entered the dream at the point she became enraged. She slowed it down and utilized her creative imagination to move her anger into an appropriate range and stay present. She also brought in a new imaginal figure that was going to feed the fish in the two neglected aquariums.

Two days later Karen had a phone conversation with her colleague that triggered her anger. Having rehearsed the ability to keep her anger proportionate to the situation she was able to find her words in a peaceful and respectful way. She expressed her disappointment with her colleague’s performance and was able to make a constructive suggestion – adding a new member to the team. The dream set the stage and gave her an opportunity to practice a new desired behavior. Karen felt that had she of not done this dreamwork she would have been sucked into a familiar old pattern.